Emily Grotta
The PebbleCreek Art Club is delighted to recognize Marian Carew as our March Artist of the Month.
I grew up in a unique German community in Iowa called the Amana Colonies. My mother was an artist, so I was interested in art from an early age, but it was not until my junior year in our small high school that an art class was offered. I immediately signed up and was hooked.
After graduation, I completed a Commercial Art program at the American Academy of Art in Chicago and was hired to do lettering for print ads. Sometime after Dan and I married, we moved to Des Moines, Iowa, with our two daughters. With no commercial art opportunities in Iowa, I enrolled in the marketing/retail and fashion merchandising program at a nearby college. My first job after graduating was selling and displaying women’s apparel and I gradually moved up to store manager for a national chain.
My husband was traveling a lot, the girls were growing up and I wanted a break from the demands of managing a retail store. Back at school again, I earned a teaching degree from the University of Northern Iowa, then taught marketing at Des Moines Area Community College for 10 years. My creative outlet was teaching a Window Display class to retail and fashion merchandising students.
When my husband’s career took us to Dallas, Texas, I worked in several capacities at the Dallas Apparel Mart, displaying and coordinating new lines of women’s apparel. As showrooms started closing and more and more apparel was manufactured offshore, I joined The Expo Group, a trade show company, and traveled everywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Germany, organizing trade shows and helping exhibitors with their booths. That window display philosophy came in handy. Trade shows were explosive during the dot com days. What a ride!
I retired from the Expo Group six years ago and, on the advice of childhood friends living in PebbleCreek, we sold our Dallas house and moved here, where, finally, I was able to get back into art!
Cleaning out my parents’ home, I gave most of my mother’s art books and supplies to Goodwill but decided to keep her brushes “just in case.” Not long after, Fred and Lorraine Alverez offered an oil class. I took it and, once again, I was hooked. I have painted since then and have taken a variety of art classes here and in Texas, where I spend my summers, until COVID hit.
When my husband passed away two years ago, I was so glad to have the support of our wonderful art club and others in PebbleCreek. I have been painting coastal scenes in Texas and the desert landscape in Arizona, where I am anxiously waiting for the day when classes will be fully functional again.
You are invited to view Marian’s artwork on display at the Creative Arts Center and at the Tuscany Falls and Eagle’s Nest clubhouses.